Tanis (Djanet in Egyptian) is an important archeological site in north-east Egypt in the Nile river delta on the Tanitic branch of the Nile. The main excavation team is currently the Société Française des Fouilles de Tanis (French Society for the Excavation of Tanis). It was the supposed site of some of the action in the film Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Tanis is called Zoan in Numbers 13:22, Isaiah 19:11,13, 30:4; Ezekiel 30:14; and Psalms 78:12,43. According to Numbers 13:22 and Psalms 78:12,43 it was built seven years after Hebron. It was also in the area of Goshen, where Jospeh settled his family in Egypt, though long before Tanis was ever built.

Tanis was founded in the early Twenty-first dynasty (or perhaps at the end of the Twentieth dynasty ), when it was the northern capital of Egypt. During the Twenty-second dynasty Tanis was also Egypt's capital (though there were rival dynasties located elsewhere). It was an important commercial and strategic city until it was threatened with inundation by Lake Manzala in the 6th century A.D., when it was abandoned. There are ruins of the temple of Amun with obelisks and statues and a royal necropolis.

External link

• Société Française des Fouilles de Tanis